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Stosh not sure what exactly the study is defining as "gluten allergen" but I can assure you for some people gluten is a major problem, for some like me it is more minor. My wife can handle a small amount very occasionally, but otherwise is in severe pain. I know my bowels very well and they are much happier when I avoid gluten. My 8 year old loves PB&J but does not want it because it always gives him a tummy ache. He tried just having half for awhile but eventually gave up on that.

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We have a scout with severe nut allergies, and yes, I do now read all the labels, and it has been an eye-opener. One bread brand is OK, the one next to it on the shelves is not. Surprising what foods contain nuts or were manufactured in a plant that MAY have processed nut products. I go over the campout menu with the scout's mom on every campout and she supplies whatever he cannot eat off the troop menu. Mainly pancakes and snacks. He also carries the epi-pen and we have all of our PLC members trained in how to administer it. It's a little problem, but not something that can't be overcome with a little understanding.

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Stosh not sure what exactly the study is defining as "gluten allergen" but I can assure you for some people gluten is a major problem, for some like me it is more minor. My wife can handle a small amount very occasionally, but otherwise is in severe pain. I know my bowels very well and they are much happier when I avoid gluten. My 8 year old loves PB&J but does not want it because it always gives him a tummy ache. He tried just having half for awhile but eventually gave up on that.

Celiacs, yes, have a problem with gluten, no doubt. And there are wheat allergies and the like as well. What doesn't seem to actually exist is the "gluten intolerance" many people claim to have these days.

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Stosh not sure what exactly the study is defining as "gluten allergen" but I can assure you for some people gluten is a major problem, for some like me it is more minor. My wife can handle a small amount very occasionally, but otherwise is in severe pain. I know my bowels very well and they are much happier when I avoid gluten. My 8 year old loves PB&J but does not want it because it always gives him a tummy ache. He tried just having half for awhile but eventually gave up on that.

The question arises in the fact that one does not consume ingredients singularly. There is usually a mixture of components that go into the food we eat, especially processed foods which make up about 90% of what is sold in the stores.

There is something in "chili powder" that doesn't agree with me and I react violently to it. I first thought it was the high acidity, but I can eat very spicy Oriental foods with no problem. I know that there is curry in north African foods and in chili powder. I get the same reaction. But when I eat what Indian cuisine which touts curry, I don't have any problem. Their curry, like chili powder is a combination of spices. I've been chasing this for years, but experiment very little because I don't really like the adverse reaction when I tie into whatever it is that is causing it.

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This brings up a good point I might start a new thread about. Do you think that Cub scout and boy scout packs should be able to get epi pens for there first aid kits they such a life saving tool?

They are prescription items, so they have to be prescribed specifically. We have a couple of boys with severe allergies. Thankfully none with severe peanut allergies. That said, they each carry their own epi-pen, and all the boys in their patrol (as well as the senior boys and leaders) know how to use them.

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Food allergies are not something to mess with. Before we knew the extent of his allergies my husband shared a cashew with our son. Within 10 minutes he had hives and within 30 minutes we were in the emergency room because he couldn't breath. Many if not most allergins can be tested for through skin tests and then fine tuned with blood tests. When used in conjunction and with patient history ,it is my understanding that they are quite accurate? Some people outgrow food allergies, some don't. My son for example grew out of his wheat allergy, but according to the experience his allergist has, he will probably not outgrow his tree nut allergy. Ingredients must be checked on EVERYTHING and you have to know what you are looking for. As one poster said, one brand of bread might be fine but the one sitting next to it is not. I have even found examples where the normal size cookie (in this case) was fine but the mini version of the same cookie was not.

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Our Troop website has a page on food allergens. We have a list of safe and not safe foods, based on common allergens: peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, etc. It is a starting point only, and the patrols know which boys have additional allergies (if any) that must be planned around. To my knowledge, none of the boys have anything beyond peanut or tree nut, so we run completely nut free all the time. We know which brands of commonly used items (bread, rolls, cookies, baking mixes, etc.) that we CAN use, and we do check menus and items brought on trips and to CoH and other events where there is shared foods to make sure.

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I tis there. My mom was deathly allergic to eggs. Never affected me. For her 80th birthday, I found a bakery that could make a banana cake, without eggs, she loved it.
Now, for TB testing, the first time I had a tine test, I had a reaction within seconds of the puncture. The medicos ascribed it to an allergy to the serum carrier, not the TB virus. Now I have to have an xray for my certification (food handling).

More personal history: We have a friend family whose son (then about 7), Rusty, loved baseball, played in Little League, etc. We went to a minor league game, and sat behind third base. Foul ball came our way, hit the concrete floor of the stands and Rusty ran up to grab it. It had (unknown immediately to us) rolled thru peanut shells to him, and when he grasped the ball, almost immediately he reacted. His parents had the epipen, and he was fine after a perhaps a half hour, but that was enough of a demonstration for me.

The allergies are there, genetical or environmental in origin, they are there. Sometimes they are "outgrown" but don't depend on that.

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What about all the nuts out in the woods ? Walnuts, acorns, etc. Also a peanut is not a nut it is a legume, so a nut or tree nut allergy is very different to a peanut allergy.

My older boy has a non-severe (thank God) peanut allergy and had been allergic to tree nuts. He seems to have outgrown the allergy to certain tree nuts as he can eat cashews and walnuts now, but not almonds or hazelnuts. I don't know about acorns, haven't tried them.

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1. Severe allergies are terrifying, food can kill you. Processed food that is (sadly) the staple of American diets is likely lethal.

2. Peanuts and Corn are the staple crops of north America. They are staple legume and staple grain. Being an American allergic to either is like being Asian and allergic to rice.

3. Something in our environment has caused severe life threatening allergies to staple foods from our country to crop up in one generation, that's NOT genetic. Yes allergies existed 30 years ago, but they were rare and uncommon. It is absolutely terrifying that something is happening around us where basic food stuffs are now lethal.

4. Volunteers can NOT be expected to handle special case severe medical conditions. It's simply unreasonable to dump that on a volunteer. If your child has these kind of allergies, you need to step up as a volunteer and keep your child alive.

5. This is Scouting. Unlike the rest of American life, we don't coddle from risks, we teach the management of it. This is the perfect environment for your son to learn (under your guidance) how to navigate the food challenges that they will face their entire life. A few months back an article made the rounds of a 16 year old at a family camp that died after eating some desert that included peanuts and the child didn't think to ask. I was unpopular for suggesting that there was a parenting failure to teach their child to ask and verify all food items. Creating "nut free bubbles" around children is extremely dangerous, because it is failing to teach them to navigate things.

Nut-free childhoods fails to teach those for whom nuts are potentially lethal how to avoid them. They need to learn how to navigate them.

Someone suggested making our Day Camp "peanut free" to accommodate peanut allergic scouts. The Scouters HOWLED in protest. This is Scouting, this is where we learn to handle life's adversities. The rest of the world can coddle and avoid, we teach boys to meet their challenges head on.